Thank you all so much for your kindness and support. It means a great deal to our whole family. Losing Penny just seems so unbelievable, like it’s a bad dream.  I do want to mention one thing further about what I wrote last night.  It may have sounded as though we were making a conscious choice to put her down, when in actuality, the vet said she would absolutely not make it to the next morning - so you have given us too much credit for a compassionate decision when honestly we were faced with the brutal reality of no other possible outcome. Thank you, too, for the wonderful pictures that have surfaced of Penny over the years.  She was a real looker and a sweetheart, and we were looking forward to many more happy years together.  But it was not meant to be.  At any rate, your friendship made an awful day a little bit easier, thank you one and all.

Our new renter and boarder, Erika moved in last week.  She has two of her own horses here and is also taking care of the Saddlebrook horses, much like Kate and Chris did. Erika just graduated with a degree in animal science, plus she is great with horses so we are blessed to have her here. She went to work right away and whipped this place into shape in no time flat. Everything is way more clean and organized than before she arrived!

Spice went to Andy’s on Saturday for training and got there without any problems. She loaded right up and away we went. I will give you a report as soon as we hear.  Elizabeth thought she looked really nice, which of course we already knew. Erika went with me and I had forgotten that they had gone to the same school UW Riverfalls. Small world, horse world that is.  Erika is also going to start riding Java and Luke and start working with Matilda to get them in shape for the summer.  It won’t be long now.